Study: Teens who play at least 2 team sports less likely to be overweight

Walking or biking to school also a factor in results, which researchers say have been conflicting in the past

July 25, 2012

Researchers found that teens who played on at least two sports teams a year were 22 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than those who did not. Those who walked or biked to school four or five times per week were 33 percent less likely to have weight problems. (Taxi photo)

Teenagers who play a couple of team sports and walk or bike to school are less likely to be overweight or obese, a new study says.

Researchers found that of more than 1,700 teens, those who played on at least two sports teams per year were 22 percent less likely to be overweight or obese than those who did not. Those who walked or biked to school four to five times per week were 33 percent less likely to have weight problems.

The findings, however, can't prove those activities prevented weight problems.

Overall, the connection shouldn't come as a surprise to most people, said Dr. William Stratbucker, a pediatrician at the Healthy Weight Center at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

"I think this is info that a lot of consumers will see as common sense. If your child is on sports teams, they're less likely to be obese," said Stratbucker, who was not involved with the new study.

The researchers say past research on different activities, including walking to school, recreational activities and playing sports, have reported conflicting results on whether they cut down on obesity.

The researchers surveyed students and parents from New Hampshire and Vermont public schools over seven years, starting about 2002. The surveys were conducted over the telephone and recorded several pieces of information, including what activities the students participated in and the students' height and weight.

The researchers used the information that was recorded once the students entered high school, which gave them information on 1,718 teens.

Overall, 29 percent of the teens were overweight or obese.

The researchers, who published their study in the journal Pediatrics last week, then looked at which activities seemed to be linked to the least risk of weight problems.

About three out of four teens played on a sports team, and the researchers found that those who played at least two sports per year were least likely to be obese.

Of the 492 teens that didn't play on a team, about 40 percent were overweight or obese. That's compared with about 22 percent of the 927 that played at least two sports.

Keith Drake, the study's lead author from Dartmouth Medical School's Hood Center for Children and Families in Lebanon, N.H., said that playing multiple team sports may help more than just playing one because those teens probably stay more active throughout the entire year.

"It does give kids a consistent way to participate in moderate to vigorous activity," Drake said.

He added, however, that simply playing one sport is probably good for kids too.

As for walking or biking to school, Drake and his colleagues found those who commuted more than three days per week were the least likely to be obese.

The study did have some limitations, including that the information was reported by the students and parents, which could introduce errors.

But overall, Stratbucker said the study shows that it's important for parents to encourage their kids to remain moderately to vigorously active all year long.

He cautioned, however, that just being in a sport does not mean teens are active.

"If a sport is what they want to do and it's limited in moderate to vigorous activity, they're going to have to find that moderate to vigorous activity somewhere else," he said.

Drake added that it's also important to make those opportunities available to teens.

"I think finding efforts to promote sports participation helps in our obesity prevention efforts. And this study — I think — speaks to paying more attention to that," he said.

Savings not always realized after weight-loss surgery

Weight-loss surgery may not end up saving money, at least among older men, suggests a new study suggests.

It's known that surgery itself is expensive, but earlier research hinted that people who undergo bariatric procedures may end up needing less, and therefore cheaper, care in subsequent years.

That evidence was largely based on younger and middle-age women, the demographic that most often undergoes weight-loss surgery.

In the new study, health-related spending dropped off for the mostly middle-age, male patients after the procedure, but after three years costs never dropped significantly below that of obese men who didn't have surgery.

"It suggests that maybe the economic benefits of bariatric surgery may not be realized as quickly in patients like these," said Matthew Maciejewski, the study's lead author from the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina.

"There are some real health benefits that were realized in these patients; they just don't translate into cost savings in a three-year time," he said.

Cardiac arrest survival up

More people hospitalized for cardiac arrest are surviving compared with a decade ago, according to a U.S. study, possibly because of changes in hospital treatment and the way bystanders respond when somebody collapses.

The study, which appeared in the journal Circulation, found that in 2008, the death rate among U.S. residents hospitalized after cardiac arrest was just less than 58 percent, down from almost 70 percent in 2001.

Researchers, led by Alejandro Rabinstein of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., based their findings on a national hospital discharge database that included nearly 1.2 million people hospitalized for cardiac arrest.

They stressed that the numbers accounted only for cardiac arrest victims who survive long enough to be admitted to the hospital. Many people die before then.